We left for the hospital at 5:00pm, so we could grab dinner on the way knowing after 6:00pm it was going to be fasting fun until she was born for me.
Here's a shot of us getting ready to leave the house, the car packed with way more than we really needed!
And my last "belly shot"...
We had a liitle more time after dinner, so I requested ice cream to top off my last supper. Who knew that Dairy Queen doesn't make chocolate soft serve ice cream anymore?! I settled for vanilla.
The last time I saw this side of our hospital with a baby inside me instead of in my arms!
Once we were all checked in, the nurses hooked me up to the fetal monitor before starting the cervadil, only to find I was already starting labor on my own! I had been having what I thought was really bad gas pains for a lot of the afternoon, but had no idea that I was actually in labor! My doctor opted to use the cervadil anyway, to be sure my labor would progress. Our LD nurse that night was Jeanette, who had come in at the last minute to help out because they were short-staffed. As we settled into the room, she said that we were in her favorite room because she had delivered her daughter in that room almost 13 years ago. As she was writing her name, the date, etc. on the room board, she wrote, "Happy Birhday," then asked what our baby's name was going to be. We told her, Evelyn, and she turned around with a shocked look on her face. Her daughter's name, the one born in the same room, was Evelyn! So we had an instant connection with her.
Everything progressed well through the night, and we started pitocin in the morning. I was definitely feeling the contractions at this point and, as promised, the pitocin took them from 0-160 on the pain scale in about 2 minutes! Dr. Nowitzky broke my water a little bit later, and we were off and running. Because of Evelyn's size, my doctor didn't give me much of a choice over an epidural. It wasn't my favorite - I hated not having any feeling/control over my legs. At one point my new LD nurse, Carole, checked me - and I figured I had to be at least 6cm. She said I was 4 1/2cm and I was ready to quit. I couldn't believe that I was only that far given the frequency and intensity of my contractions (I could still feel them on my right side...the epidural pretty much deadened just my left side). She was pretty new, so she had her supervisor check me...and I was actually 9cm!! Talk about a second wind! The last cm went fairly quickly. Once it was time, I pushed through 3 contractions and she was out!
After we found out I was 9cm...just about go time! Dan told me to smile...this was the best I could do under the circumstances!
Here are some pictures of her first few minutes in this crazy world!
Dan was thrilled that her first sight after entering the world was basketball.
Evelyn and Dr. Nowitzky (Dan did great getting pictures!)
Holding my baby girl for the first time!
(minus the 3 seconds they let her lay on my chest before they cleaned her up)
Our little family of 3...so happy!!
Daddy holding his baby girl for the first time!
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